The Bookshelf

"The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy"

by Kate Hattemer

Narrator Ethan Andrezejczak attends elite Selwyn Academy, where students walk down the halls debating opera or Shakespeare and everyone is gifted or talented or both. Ethan's course load includes fifth-year Latin, Advanced Figure Drawing, and Ezra Pound. So what happens when a television reality show begins filming in the Academy's posh corridors? Of course chaos ensues. The student body immediately splits. The beautiful people are eager to compete on the show for fame and glory and, oh yes, the $100,000.00 prize. Ethan, who describes himself as "of the Untalented caste," is with a small minority who think the television project will ruin the school. They decide the way to rebel is to write and anonymously publish a long poem on the evils of the reality show. The plot zigzags back and forth until you're not sure who is real and who is pretending. Plenty of humor here, from the gerbil who does circus tricks to Ethan's little sisters, 4-year-old triplets. Not to mention his friends, each unique in a different way.

There's mystery, too. Are the good guys and bad guys who you think they are? What's going on behind the scenes? I love the way that when the climax comes (don't worry, no spoilers here), I realized that the narrative had already given me all the clues to the solution, but they were so cleverly hidden that it was still a surprise. Grades 7 and up.